Diego Corrales

Mervyn Penniston of Trinidad and Jaime De La Torre of Zacatecas, Mexico, will fight for the WBC Latin American-Caribbean super-middleweight championship on Sept. 16 at the Castaic Brick Yard. Penniston and De La Torre, who trains out of El Monte, each have seven knockouts. Two experienced lightweights, Justin Juuko of Masaka, Uganda, and Alejandro Jiminez of Canoga Park, will meet in an eight-round bout.

The contracts have been signed, the hype has been elevated, the training has been intensified, tickets have been sold and predictions have been made. But until the most important man was heard from, Saturday's Lennox Lewis-Vitali Klitschko heavyweight title fight at Staples Center was not a done deal. That man was Cedric Boswell and he has finally given his approval, removing the last obstacle from this fight, barring a last-minute injury.

Diego Corrales' lack of street motorcycle riding experience and his decision to speed on surface roads were identified Tuesday as the probable causes of the fatal crash that killed the former two-division boxing champion Monday, Las Vegas Police said. Corrales, 29, was riding a 2007 Suzuki motorcycle about 10 miles from the Las Vegas Strip, having just left an apartment complex where he had met with friends. He was heading to his home a few minutes away, said his co-promoter, Antonio Leonard.

In the early days, his nickname fit him like the boxing gloves he used to carve out a niche at the top of his profession. For "Sugar" Shane Mosley, life was indeed sweet. The peak was a victory over Oscar De La Hoya in Staples Center in 2000, a triumph that appeared to move Mosley out of his long-time Southern California rival's shadow. But it was never that good again for the former super-welterweight champion from Pomona.

It took a beat of the heart for the paralyzing pain to set in. In that instant, Jose Luis Castillo took a step back and stared at the man who had just delivered the devastating blow to his rib cage on the right side. But then the agony and the helplessness crept over Castillo as the air was sucked out of his body.

As he walked out of Graterford state prison in Pennsylvania, Bernard Hopkins passed a guard. "You'll be back," the sneering guard told Hopkins. That was 18 years ago and Hopkins has returned only as a role model, an example of how a kid from the wrong side of the tracks can find the road to success. Hopkins spent five years in prison after being convicted, at 17, of robbery.

It was a scene that left boxing fans with a bad taste, yet hungering for more. Fighting on the undercard of the James Toney-Evander Holyfield heavyweight match at Las Vegas' Mandalay Bay Events Center last October, junior-lightweights Joel Casamayor and Diego Corrales waged a fierce battle. After six rounds, Corrales had been knocked down twice, Casamayor once.

After failing to qualify for Saturday's scheduled lightweight title fight when he came in overweight Friday, Jose Luis Castillo now faces the scales of justice. Keith Kizer, executive director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, was expected to issue a complaint today or Tuesday against the former two-time World Boxing Council lightweight champion.

Gold medal-winning gymnasts Nadia Comaneci, 44, and Bart Conner, 48, are the parents of a baby boy, Dylan Paul, born Saturday in Oklahoma City. The baby was born a few weeks early and weighed only 4 pounds 10 ounces, but Conner said, "He already has definition in his deltoids and his biceps." The Associated Press reported that the delivery room staff created a poster proclaiming the boy a "perfect 10."